Possibly the strongest argument against the existence of the Christian god is contained in the theodicy problem, i.e., the problem of defending God in the presence of evil.

The Christian may try to escape from this problem by claiming that God is not responsible and blameworthy for (moral) evil, since it follows from the free actions of human beings, who are morally autonomous.

We can now conclude that the theodicy problem remains intact: a god who is responsible and blameworthy for evil is, himself, evil, and hence, God (who is defined as being all-good) does not exist.

And theodicy is in essence a justification of God from the slander, which is raised against Him by human imaginings.

Theodicy is possible only for a theology that is spiritualistic, and not naturalistic, for a theology, which will think about God not in an analogy with the objects of the natural world nor with the traits of the kingdom of Caesar, but in revelations of the spiritual world, of spiritual experience, of the spiritual pathway.

Christian theodicy is manifest in life and in experience, and it is lodged within the Holy Scripture, it is proven at the heights of Christian mysticism and sanctity.

Thus theodicy came to be synonymous with natural theology (theologia naturalis) that is, the department of metaphysics which presents the positive proofs for the existence and attributes of God and solves the opposing difficulties.

Theodicy, therefore, may be defined as the science which treats of God through the exercise of reason alone.

The first and most important task of theodicy is to prove the existence of God.

It is not clear this is the case, however, since she seems to confuse "theodicy" with rational reflection about God and suffering and condemns as arrogant all such intellectual musings, claiming that they produce nothing but detached theoretical speculations, irrelevant to living faith and to suffering individuals in their unique and personal contexts.

The author seems unaware that her view of theodicy is a caricature: theodicies are hardly the arrogant, abstract justifications of all evils as part of God's plan, irrelevant to the individual sufferer.

Such theodicies claimed to fully justify evil and suffering in a cold-hearted, insensitive and purely theoretical manner that is all-but-irrelevant to individual sufferers in their particular situations.

A theodicy is required to explain how an omnibenevolent, omnipotent and omniscient God can have allowed terrible evil to occur, as these three attributes appear to be in opposition to each other.

The theodicy issue arises immediately when evangelicals limit salvation to those who come to conscious faith in Christ during their earthly lives and define salvation as anything akin to justification by faith.

It is the hypothesis of this study that Christian preaching about theodicy seems regularly to have come in conflict with denials of it, denials which are typically and even specifically characteristic of Epicureans.

Theodicy is an aspect of theology concerned with how to reconcile the existence of a good God with the existence of evil in the world.

In general, theodicy addresses the "problem of evil." An attempted theory of reconciliation is sometimes called "a theodicy".

The term theodicy comes from the Greek (theós, "god") and (díkē, "justice"), and has to do with justifying the goodness of God and understanding his sovereignty with the existence of evil in the world.

Leibniz'stheodicy was constructed to combat a logical problem of evil (i.e., a problem of evil that shows God logically incompatible with evil); and it indeed works according to the general consensus.

It is an amazingly effective theodicy, one that sent the atheist away to disprove God by induction rather than the deduction that atheists had formerly supposed disproved God.

But this in my opinion is a vain endeavor; for if God is not proved it is considered by most irrational to believe in him in any case; and if he is proved, the inductive argument from evil is in vain, given that it is merely evidential and not performed with deductive rigor.

It is possible, for instance, that a theodicy by explaining the causes of evil and suffering may serve as a justification for both the powerful and the powerless (Berger 59).

A Theodicy of Protest: This position is one that complains to God, objecting that God could have and on the surface should have intervened in any number of horrific circumstances.

John Philip Yoder goes so far as to suggest that theodicy is a from of presumption and idolatry because it seeks to judge God by human standards and ignores the biblical understanding of Christs suffering and his mission for his kingdom.

www.dbu.edu /mitchell/theodicy.htm (5667 words)

[No title](Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)

This essay explores the issue of theodicy in the Psalms of Solomon.

The book includes chapters on theodicy in literature from ancient Near Eastern texts of the second millennium B.C.E. to rabbinic Judaism.

The simultaneous fear and exploitation of similitude that Dollimore detects in Augustine'stheodicy surfaces in two later medieval discourses of domination, those of heresy and of antifeminism.

The history of theodicy is the history of the presentation and rehearsal of such arguments, with appropriate supporting texts, and not much is new under the theodical sun.

A theodicy that admits that God can indeed do evil and that centers around continuing confrontation and protest as part of a seriatim religious healing process is a theodicy that questions whether God was right in insisting on crucifying his son.

A theodicy of abuse and protest set in the context of seriatim healing, although it challenges the more usual views, seems to me to accomplish this and, hence, would appear to be a "better" theodicy, in theory as well as in praxis.

"Theodicy" is a technical term...Theodicy is normally understood as being an attempt to rationally or logically defend the concept of God as perfectly just and loving even though there is evil in the world He supposedly created.

Hick and Griffin both have continued to defend the core ideas in their respective theodicies against objections that have been raised since their seminal works were first published.

Furthermore, classical theodicy refuses to give up the traditional ideas that God is timeless and changeless despite the logical problems this involves when it is claimed that this same God created the physical world.

Theodicies sometimes address the problem of the co-existence of God and evil in what might be considered a sufficient manner, yet in the final analysis the views change God into something that is not God, or even a god.

Theodicy is only addressed when we question why God, good and omnipotent and unable to sin, or to accept sin, and able to create virtuous being without falling into sin, chose the OPTION to create mankind in such a way that he would certainly fall and then suffer true and often torturous outrages.

Although there are probably as many theodicies as there are people in the world, Stephen Davis does a fine job selecting scholars who represent various, major viewpoints on the classic problem of evil to elucidate their positions.

There is a very interesting article in today's New York Times on the notion of "theodicy" a term "coined in the 18th century by the...

There is a theodicy at work here, in the ways in which the reaction to natural catastrophe so readily becomes political.

Actually, in some respects, this theodicy has gone even beyond the political: just as a religious theodicy might have shown natural catastrophe to be the result of human misdeed, many of the early commentators about the flood did the same, creating a kind of scientific/moral theodicy in which human sin is still a dominant factor.

Now in the studio recording their first EP (available in early July), Theodicy is also occupied writing new material and traveling throughout West Virginia and Pennsylvania for their busy summer tour schedule.

With a sound that blends acoustic rock, blues, and jazz, Theodicy hopes to bring something fresh to the Christian music scene as well as to branch out beyond the walls of the church in order to reach as many people as possible with their message.

With a musical style that draws fans of all ages and lyrics that are both introspective and encouraging, Theodicy makes every effort to be a vindication of Gods goodness in light of the existence of evil.

Plantinga has always been careful to stress that he was not proposing a theodicy, that is, an actual explanation of why God allows evil.

The Irenaean theodicy, named after the Church Father and recently popularized by John Hick, sees our world as an arena of "soul making," that is, a place where free but immature creatures can grow up into moral and spiritual maturity.

The first is that God could provide us with a complete theodicy, that is, a detailed explanation of every evil we ever encounter.

It may be impossible to solve the puzzle while still believing in a God with traditional characteristics; it may be necessary to abandon belief in one or more attributes.

In fact, some Atheists have used the theodicy problem as a indicator or proof that a personal God does not exist.

It begs the question: if God is omniscient and omnipotent, why did he not curtail the activities of Satan and prevent him from succeeding in his plan to cause natural or man-made disasters?.

www.religioustolerance.org /reac_ter3.htm (2855 words)

Theodicy and Animals(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)

The denial would render theodicy superfluous, and while it remains logically possible that animals (as well as other humans) are not conscious of their pains, it is hardly plausible.

Inasmuch as Hick’stheodicy relies upon the distinction between pain and suffering, it does not adequately reconcile the fact of animal pain and suffering with a benevolent, omnipotent deity.

But, in the theodicies examined here, animal pain and suffering were either denied or trivialized, and when finally firmly recognized, God’s benevolence was called into serious question.

cla.calpoly.edu /~jlynch/Lynch_Theodicy.html (4586 words)

Searching for a Theodicy of Intelligent Design(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)

To take the Irenaean theodicy and introduce it into orthodoxy requires suggesting that God condemned many of us to death for no wrong doing of our own, but rather for the soul building benefit of others.

Of course, if we return to orthodoxy, we cannot accept this view and therefore, the Irenaean Theodicy is left blaming God for the eternal torment of His creation.

If theologians could construct a good, orthodoxtheodicy with the mindset of "what if" concerning intelligent design, we could likely attract many more seekers who aren't ready to accept creationism but are ready to accept God as the Ultimate Reality of the universe, and more importantly, their Lord and savior.

The rest of this essay is my answer to that question with respect to theodicy, formulated as a question as to whether the omnipotence and goodness of God are compatible with the suffering and injustice in the world.

The notion is abhorrent to me. Yet, when I wrote a chapter on theodicy, I found myself wrestling harder and longer with this alternative than with all the others combined.

While I have not made an exhaustive study of the theodicy question, I have dabbled in it enough to know that the great minds of history contradict each right and left on the subject.